Strobe
Lexus International
Issue 32 | September 2014
Agency
Chi & Partners
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Jonathan Burley Creative Director Monty Verdi Copywriters Colin Smith Angus Vine Art Directors Angus Vine Colin Smith Digital + Content Creatives Simon Findlater Ben Stump CEO Nick Howarth
Production Team
TV Producer Nicola Ridley Production Company Stink Director Adam Berg Producer Ben Croker DOP Mattias Montero Local Production Company Passion Local Production Company Producer Jaan Kit Editor Paul Hardcastle Trim Post-production VFX Supervisor Franck Lambertz MPC Audio Post-production Sam Ashwell 750 Music Composition Computer Magic Suit Designers Adam Wright Vin Burnham Digital Producer Emma Hodson CHI & Partners Content Production Company Stink Content Director Chris Morrish Content Producer Helen Power Content Editor Ben Canny
Other Credits
Planner Rebecca Munds Business Director Jack Shute Account Director Catherine Peacock Account Manager Hannah White
Date
July 2014
Background
'Strobe' was the third in a series of projects around the theme of 'Amazing in Motion'. It followed 'Steps', a choreographed stunt using puppets 11-feet tall, and 'Swarm', footage of a swarm of quadcopter robots exploring night-time Vancouver.
Idea
Lexus wanted to reach out to a new audience, illustrating not just the brilliant engineering and grace of its products but also the adventurous, imaginative nature of the brand.
To build on its ambition to connect with the hearts as well as the minds of consumers, the idea itself had to be a demonstration of innovative design and technology.
An LED spectacle was painstakingly created in which gymnasts and stuntmen suspended across Kuala Lumpur's skyline were lit up in rapid succession to give the impression of an acrobat in rapid motion.
The 'lightmen' wore LED lightsuits and were controlled by a purpose-built computer system to strobe one by one to create the impression of one amazing journey across the city. Each suit contained 1,680 LED lights, all wirelessly controlled to strobe on command.
Footage of the event ran across TV, cinema, outdoor, digital and social channels worldwide.
The track, 'Running', was chosen for the way it effortlessly complements the sequence of the Lightmen, accentuating the flow of movement, while the lyrics support the narrative of the Lightman running through the city at night.
Results
After just one month, the 60" spot has had approx. 1.5 million views on YouTube, and the documentary content nearly 150,000. There have been over 100 pieces of coverage worldwide, including leading creativity and technology publications such as Creativity, Campaign, The Drum, Gizmodo and Mashable. This PR coverage alone has had a total reach beyond 156.5 million.
Our Thoughts
In terms of using YouTube well, CHI seem to have done a good job. The main film, ‘Strobe’, has had nearly 1.5m views but the two ‘making of’ videos have got approaching 135,000 views. But then below that there are a series of Lexus Design Award videos and then below that a series of films about Lexus concept cars.
Google talk about having three sorts of video on YouTube if you want to support a brand properly. There’s Hero content, which drives people to the channel in the first place (‘Strobe’), Hub content, which supports the positioning (‘Lexus LF-NX Reveal: Concept Cars’ with 154,132 views) and lastly Hygiene videos, detailing product features (‘Lexus T+RC Touchpad’, which connects the driver more directly to the audio and navigation systems of the car. It has had only 18,272 views but bear in mind each viewer chose to watch the video.)
The moral of the story being, you can’t judge ‘Strobe’ on its own. It has to be seen in the context of a broader online strategy, which looks pretty good to me, especially with ‘Swarm’ collaring 3.3m views earlier in the year.